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Using a PIM to catalog files and folders
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Posted by Dr Andus
Jun 14, 2012 at 10:34 AM
Pavi wrote:
>I am not sure how to consolidate my research, since I have
>many pdfs and webpages, not to mention files. These would probably be better suited to
>TreeProjects, using a standard tree format, as storing them with revisions is
>desirable as are automatically imported folders (special folders). However, I am
>completed fascinated by the possibilities of organizing more “free form” in CT. Is
>there any way to store files in the TreeProjects database, and access them (export?)
>in CT, I wonder?
That I don’t know. You might be better off contacting the TreeProjects developer or ask the folks on the ConnectedText forum.
As I said, I think CT is better suited for doing the analysis of content once the data collection is done and you don’t plan to add much new data to those folders. I am now using CT as my main CAQDAS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_assisted_qualitative_data_analysis_software). I did however take a seminar in Atlas.ti and taught myself NVivo by watching the tutorial videos and using it extensively for the first half of my project. However after discovering CT I realised that I can not only model all the main processes of NVivo in CT but can even do stuff that NVivo is not good at. Also, CT is much faster and more pliable, not to mention more affordable.
The big thing for me is that I can model my own work flow (analytical steps) and implement it in CT, while in NVivo you are stuck with the imagination of the NVivo developers. Of course NVivo also has some bells and whistles that CT doesn’t have but I found I don’t need those for my purposes.
Posted by Dr Andus
Jun 14, 2012 at 12:13 PM
P.S. Here is where I described one of those analytical processes in CT:
http://www.outlinersoftware.com/messages/viewm/14417
http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/3799
Posted by MadaboutDana
Jun 14, 2012 at 06:44 PM
Fascinating! I confess I’ve rather avoided CT - tiptoed round it, so to speak, but maybe I’ll have to take a look; for the Greater Good, you understand…
Thanks for the cross-references. I’ve gotta try that!
Cheers,
Bill
Posted by Pavi
Jun 15, 2012 at 08:19 PM
Dr. Andus,
Thank you for the detailed information! My main “problem” is breaking from traditional thinking, which for me mean means hierarchical trees and having all data in one place. Also, my needs are totally different from yours, as my research is mainly derived from pdfs, webpages, and my own notes and files. However, Connectedtext seems like the ideal software to attempt to make the break between personal needs and a research environment, as the power and features are simply amazing.
Now I simply need to dive in and learn how to get my research environment up and running without a break in my work flow.
Best, /Pavi
Posted by Dr Andus
Jun 15, 2012 at 10:13 PM
Pavi wrote:
Also, my needs are totally different from yours, as my research is
>mainly derived from pdfs, webpages, and my own notes and files.
Not necessarily. Here is a mini case study of what I’ve been doing the last two days.
I have 167 folders in one directory that contain further sub-folders as well as hundreds of different files (Word, PPT, Excel, text, PDF, images etc.) that I’ve collected over 6 years. They’ve been organised into chronological folders named as “2008_11_28” etc., denoting the date when the folder was created (and when its contents were collected). Problem: I no longer remembered what was in the folders or where certain things were. However, I needed to find out, so I could organise the material meaningfully and use certain files as evidence or as material that needs to be analysed further. The main purpose is to connect this material to some documents I already have in ConnectedText. The main obstacle is the hierarchical organisation: Windows Explorer or my other PIMs would only allow me to see the contents of one folder at a time. I want to be able to see all my folders and files, so I can start rearranging the contents into new themes or connect them to existing themes. CT allows me to do this.
Here is my process flow. I work with two monitors.
1. Left monitor: CT is open. I create a new topic (document) and have the Table of Contents (TOC) open on the left, and the topic open in edit view.
2. Right monitor: I have Windows Explorer open with the folder hierarchy and with file preview pane (in Win7).
3. I start going through each folder one by one, to see what’s in the folder.
4. I create headings in CT that look like this:
=2008= (to keep data organised by years)
==28-Nov-08: the name describing the contents of the folder==
===emails===
===images===
===notes===
etc.
5. Then I drag and drop either the entire folder or individual files from Win Explorer, depending on how detailed I want to be, and drop them into CT under the relevant heading.
I repeat this with every folder. It did take me two days but at the end of it I have my 167 folders and its contents laid out and labelled (via the headings) in front of my eyes in a single document. Although its a very long document, I can navigate it easily because in the TOC I can see all the headings of every folder and I can collapse the top level headings (2008, 2009 etc.) if I want to focus on a smaller set. As for the main window, whether I look at it in the view or edit mode, I can now click on any of the files or folders and they open in their respective applications. I can also open and dock the “Files” pane to the right of CT, so I can see all the files and folders that have been thus linked to this CT document.
At the moment however this is still just a replica of the hierarchical Win Explorer organisation, although the folder names are now labelled with descriptive names (the headings). The next step is to organise this content into thematic groups (as opposed to chronological groups). This is easy. All I need to do is start a new main heading, e.g. =Company A= and then drag or cut and paste all the various sections that contain the related files there. So at the end I may end up with a new organisation, where I have
=Company A=
==2008==
===28-Nov-08: the name describing the contents of the folder===
etc.
==2009==
etc.
then
=Company B=
=2008=
etc.
When I’m finished with reorganising my content, then I can just highlight everything belonging to Company A and select “Cut to new topic” from the context menu, and the content is removed from the original document and is placed into a new document that is hyperlinked to the original document. I repeat with all the other sections, until the original document becomes a home page for this sub-set of hyperlinked documents. Then I can go and analyse and work on each document in detail. In some cases I may want to hyperlink the new documents created to other existing documents within CT with the given theme.
The end result is that the contents of 167 folders have all been identified, annotated, organised into themes and connected to other themes, resulting in a totally new hierarchy which is now multi-connected through a variety of links (a networked hierarchy). Most importantly, I can draw conclusions from each new document created, and then aggregate the conclusions, thus putting an end to the analysis process. Thanks to the hyperlinking, TOC, and CT’s search capabilities, it will always be easy to find any single file. But hopefully I won’t have to return to them because now I have processed them and drew the necessary conclusions, which I aggregate elsewhere.
I apologise to anyone who had been bored by this, I promise I won’t mention CT for a while :)